gamble
by Aria Illusine
Summary: AU ItaSaku, “Do you value your life more now, little one?” And because she did, and didn’t trust him yet not to kill her still in spite of months of short little twilight meetings, she lied. “I don’t know.”


**Title:** gamble

**Beta:** No one yet.

**Pairing:** ItaSaku

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary:** AU ItaSaku, "Do you value your life more now, little one?" And because she did, and didn't trust him yet not to kill her still in spite of months of short little twilight meetings, she lied. "I don't know." She knew he could be her death...but it didn't stop her from seeking him out.

A little darker than my usual offerings, but hopefully still just as pleasing to read ^^

* * *

gamble

It was almost night; almost night, and beautiful out, if she was any judge of nature's charms. Breathing in the crisp, late-autumn air, Sakura could feel her taut nerves relaxing under the icy chill that pervaded the evening. It was a strange quirk of hers, but she was always more comfortable than most in the cold. In weather such as this, she could honestly feel herself growing calmer than if she had been wrapped up in blankets in front of a blazing fire.

And now, as she traversed the mostly-deserted park on her way back to her boarding house, she indulged in spreading her arms out and dancing to music she couldn't hear, her burgundy and beige plaid scarf streaming out behind her until she had to catch hold of it again lest it fly away from her.

It made her want to just collapse onto the shuffling leaves at her feet, burying herself in their brown-and-gold depths. The happy giggles burst out from her before she could stop herself, and once she started, she realized she didn't want to quiet herself and let them spill forth unchecked carelessly.

"Are you always this excitable?"

Her laughter cut off mid-giggle, her body whirling around without her conscious control as emerald eyes darted to and fro to locate the speaker.

Her gaze landed on him without any trouble; she had no doubt he was the speaker the moment she laid eyes on the slim figure in the shade of the aspen nearby.

He was strangely dressed for the evening; it was quite frigid this time of year, but he seemed unconcerned with the chill as he leaned against the tree trunk in a pair of ink-black slacks, a white collared shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a black waistcoat. A crimson tie and obsidian dress shoes completed his ensemble.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold shook her.

"I didn't…I didn't think I had an audience," she told him as staunchly as she could, avoiding his dark gaze by taking a few moments to fiddle with her scarf and wind the woven wool around her neck more securely. "Do you always come out here to interrogate people in the park?" she shot back.

A sinfully low chuckle crossed the empty space between them as he gracefully pushed away from the leafless aspen and ever-so-slowly sauntered towards her. "Not usually," he told her, so casually that she couldn't tell if he was lying or being truthful, "but I made an exception."

"I'm sure I should feel flattered," Sakura replied, forcing down her rising panic as she tried her best to ignore him and continue on her way home, thrusting her hand into her coat pocket to clench around for her cell phone. She'd be whipping it out as soon as she was out of sight of this bizarre individual to call Ino or the police (she wasn't entirely sure which just yet but figured the next few minutes would determine that for her).

"Hn."

The low noise of amusement was frighteningly close, and she couldn't stifle the tiny gasp that escaped her as she canted her face to catch the other's gaze. Nor did she manage to bite back the squeak as she was unwillingly mesmerized by the hue of the stranger's eyes.

Dark onyx pooled with hints of crimson bore into moss-green orbs that widened in unconcealed fear.

"Don't be afraid of me," he murmured, his voice a deliciously velvety slide across her senses as she struggled to force her paralyzed body to move. "I mean you no harm."

"D-don't lie," she managed between quivering lips as he drew close, the touch of his hands cold through the layers of her jacket. "If you…meant me no harm…you wouldn't be doing this." A bitter laugh burst between her frozen teeth. "I'm going to…die like this…aren't I." The killer's aura was pouring off him, unmistakable, in waves.

"Are you always so resigned to death?"

The question surprised her. She was in his arms, motionless from whatever spell he had over her, and he was so close that she could hear the slide of his sable hair against his silken vest as he leaned closer still. Did he enjoy playing with her like this? She couldn't tell, but each second her heart beat was one more to have, so she answered him, regardless of her feelings towards his words.

"I…don't know. I've never been faced with it before."

Those onyx eyes, set in his starkly beautiful, aristocratic face, flickered with a question. Her words weren't enough.

"Maybe. There's no one here I care for really besides my best friend…"

His dark eyes hardened then at her admission, his lips going thin as he pressed them together, displeasure obvious. "You value your life so little," he rasped, voice like crushed velvet growing strangely harsh. "Why?"

"Are you seriously asking me this now?" she asked, noting how the words came easier, as if his hold over her was growing less. "I was orphaned at a young age, spent most of my time in foster care, and Ino's been one of the only constants in my life."

"Your best friend."

"Yes."

When he let go of her, it was so abrupt, she stumbled and almost fell; his arm shot out to catch her, and she contemplated the strangeness of how she was getting aid from the same person who had probably been about to kill her not too long ago.

"It displeases me that you value yourself so little. Go."

She was tempted to stare at him, dumbfounded at his statement, but she had regained her strength when he'd let go, so she listened to common sense for once and fled like a hunted animal.

She didn't see the longing in the sable-haired male's eyes as they followed her retreating form.

=*~*~*=

"You court death quite easily, little girl."

She forced herself not to stiffen at the familiar sound of his voice. How could she forget that velvety tone when it had haunted her for days after the incident until she forced herself to walk back through the park almost a month later, at early evening like before?

"I came to ask you a question," she replied, ignoring his first statement as she stood across from him, bathed in the last light of day, he standing in the shadows of the aspen where she had first seen him.

Dark eyes flickered to her, seemingly unconcerned. "Ask, though I cannot promise you an answer," he informed her laconically, his aura one of boredom as he minutely inspected the dark leather gloves that adorned his hands today. The sleeves of his white collared shirt were pulled down, and the crimson tie slightly looser, but other than that, there was no changes to his original appearance.

As she stood, shivering slightly as her boots crunched in the thin layer of snow on the ground, she wondered again if he ever got cold.

"Do you come here often?"

It obviously wasn't what he'd been expecting because his obsidian eyes pinned her then in a gaze that made her feel suddenly naked. Long, soundless moments passed as Sakura wondered if she had crossed an unspoken line and debated retracting her question. Her lips parted, hoping to unsay her earlier words, when he interrupted, effectively silencing her.

"Early evening. Like now. I like seeing this park at twilight when the sun casts indirect light at the trees."

It wasn't the answer _she'd_ been expecting, and she decided that she had to be all sorts of weird for intentionally courting this strange man who was definitely preternatural. But something drove her to seek him out, and even the faint fears in the back of her mind saying this could only end badly were growing fainter still with every moment she spent with him.

"Do you mind if I come to see you…sometimes?"

Her breath caught as his eyes warmed fractionally.

"Not at all."

=*~*~*=

"Do you value your life more now, little one?"

"I don't know."

The back and forth was their usual greeting, a strange way of saying hello, but she could hardly think of herself exchanging pleasantries with the individual she had come to know as Itachi. The pet name was new though.

"No more 'little girl'?" she asked with a quirk of her eyebrow.

He shrugged, executing the gesture with such grace that she was positively green with envy when the casual roll of his shoulder ended. "No."

She waited but he didn't give her more of an explanation, and finally she turned the conversation to another topic. He obviously didn't feel like talking about it, and she wasn't going to press.

She could never forget that he had almost killed her when they'd first met.

=*~*~*=

"I see you less now; are you busier?"

"That is the wrong sort of question," he replied silkily, though she could tell from his tone that he was amused.

"So, why do I see you less now?" she pressed, her shoulder-length rose petal hair pulled back into a ponytail so that the strands would keep off the back of her neck. It was getting too hot for even t-shirts and shorts these days, but he still wore his collared shirt and slacks and waistcoat, though the sleeves were rolled up again.

"Repeating the question will not get you a different answer."

Sakura pouted, making a playful face at her evening companion. "Don't go crushing my dreams or anything, Itachi," she said with a wry little quirk of her lips, as if his statement had actually hurt, though he knew her better than that.

"I take utmost care in your dreams," he replied softly, so quietly that the words were almost on the edge of hearing itself.

She eyed him curiously, but it was as if he hadn't realized she heard him. His eyes were back to their mirror-like blankness. And then he was pulling back into the growing gloom, a sure signal that their time was drawing to a close, and speaking the question that had become both their greeting, and parting.

"Do you value your life more now, little one?"

And because she did, and didn't trust him yet not to kill her still in spite of months of short little twilight meetings, she lied.

"I don't know."

=*~*~*=

"Do you value your life more now, little one?"

"I wonder," she sighed, feeling lost and more than a little bit reckless.

It was colder now, or rather, again. Autumn was in full swing now, and time had brought them nearly full circle. The eighteen-year-old stretched her arms out over her head, flopping onto the dead grass tiredly as she stared up into the crimson-flecked onyx eyes of her…friend.

And she caught the interested glimmer in his gaze.

"That is a different answer."

"I know," she muttered, rolling onto her side to avoid his contemplative look. "Forgive me if I feel a little less like standing on ceremony now."

"Ceremony?"

"You know, our little greeting, parting, whatever ritual. You always asking the same question, me always giving the same answer; you know." She flapped a bare hand as if that sufficiently indicated her feelings, fighting the urge to press her face into the dead grass to hide the pink tinge to her cheeks that couldn't entirely be attributed to the cold. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but some gut instinct in her said that if he caught sight of her face, he would know her thoughts and feelings, and it wasn't something she was comfortable letting him have access to just yet. She still had a few barriers up.

"I have never thought of it as a ceremony," he responded, his voice solemn. "Every time I have asked, I have meant the words sincerely."

"I was afraid you'd say that," she whispered to herself, not really caring if he heard her but instinctively lowering her voice anyway. She got to her feet, not daring to look at him.

"Do you value your life more now, little one?"

"I'm not sure…"

It was difficult to keep from glancing over her shoulder.

Once again, she failed to see the longing in the sable-haired male's eyes as he refrained from reaching out to stop her as she walked away.

=*~*~*=

It was the first time in a few weeks since she had last visited him, since she had changed the way she answered his usual question, and she wasn't sure if he knew the significance of it.

A part of her liked to imagine he did.

It was a year since their first meeting.

But on the one day she wanted him to ask her, to say the words he always did, he was silent, as if almost afraid of her response. So they stood in silence with their backs against his aspen tree, the park slowly drenching in gloom as she shuffled her sneakers through the dry leaves, creating a soft crackle that was the only sound in the quiet.

_'I…I must have made him angry last time,'_ her mind supplied, somewhat mournfully as her insides squirmed. The thought of his displeasure sat badly with her, enough so that her bare hands squeezed into fists at her sides. _'Good job, Sakura. Maybe you should break the silence…'_

Except she couldn't; too shy, for once, to say anything.

_'This is going so well…'_ her mind supplied finally, several long minutes later. Minutes that had felt like an eternity. _'What's the point…'_

She pushed herself away from the tree, feeling a lump rise to her throat as she prepared to make an exit.

"Do you value your life more now, little one?"

Stiffly, she turned to face the dark-haired male, her viridian eyes catching his in a serious gaze that willed him to understand her.

"Yes. Very much."

She wasn't frozen in place when he approached her this time, but she kept still anyway, accepting this. She had known, sort of, what his reaction might have been. That he wasn't keeping her in place with a spell spoke volumes though, to replace the words unvoiced in his eyes.

"You knew this would happen," he said, his hands gripping her shoulders, phrasing the question as a statement.

Sakura tried to smile, though the coldness of the evening made her face a little stiff. "No, but I guessed."

"And you were willing to gamble your life on it?"

This time she succeeded in smiling. "It was worth it."

Breath hardly warmer than the chilly November air feathered across her cheek, "Forgive me."

"Why?" she asked, her voice steady and tinted with the barest touch of amusement. "I'm not thinking of fighting you."

"Regardless," he whispered, silken voice going ragged and he finally lowered his lips to her throat, the hunger raw in his voice. "Regardless."

Fangs like daggers dug into her flesh.

She had expected pain; the skin of her neck was sensitive, but not the lightheaded pleasure as he bit into her throat and began to drink away her lifeblood.

It was as if the crimson draining out of her was being replaced by silver and gold, leaving her floating in a sea of sensual feelings, every nerve ending vibrating along with the lines that pulsed around the puncture wounds. She was quickly growing breathless as Itachi's arms tightened around her, his skin growing warm as she fisted her hands in his vest. A breathless whimper escaped her, growing into a full-fledged moan of helpless need as the sable-haired male growled longingly into her flesh, causing her entire body to vibrate to the sound.

"I-Ita-Itachi…"

She was certain she must have been having a heart attack when he finally pulled away, his lips descending on hers in a possessive kiss.

He tasted sweet and dark, like a chocolate truffle melted on her tongue, and not at all like blood as she expected. But that thought was there and gone as he slid his tongue across her bottom lip, then proceeded to devour her like she was life-giving water he hadn't seen in days.

Already boneless from earlier, she could only cling to him weakly as he swallowed her soft, mewling cries, the sinfully wicked drag of his tongue against her own too seductive to bear for long. His warmth burned her now as he tightened his hold on her, pressing her fully against his front as she twined her arms around his neck, her fingers finding purchase in the silken strands of his ebony hair. His own hands cradled the back of her head and neck, angling her to better access the depths of her sweetness.

And with every touch, she was growing more and more aware of what she had been blind to since the beginning. He had wanted her, since before that first meeting where she had almost died, and had spared her, even knowing that this could be the only outcome to their encounter. He would drink her blood, though she was pretty certain he hadn't known she would come to him willingly like this.

Now that he had her, he wasn't going to be letting go, and Sakura wasn't afraid.

"You know what you are now," he whispered, his lips sensually brushing against hers as he let her catch her breath. "You are,"

"Yours," she sobbed, finishing his sentence. "I belong to you."

"Always mine, Sakura," he told her huskily, savoring her name with a voice so overtaken with want that her knees almost gave out, his arms around her the only thing keeping her standing. "_Always_ mine."

Her breath hitched at the possessiveness in his tone, and the growl of pleasure as she whimpered his name in response. "_Forever,_" she vowed, knowing she was irrevocably binding herself to him and wanting to more than anything in the world. _"Forever._"

As his lips descended back onto hers and snow began to feather down from the iron-grey sky above them, he snaked a hand around to write a symbol over and over again on the fabric of her shirt over her heart.

'_Love.'_

Her faint heartbeat thundered in her chest as she tightened her fingers in his hair. _'I love you too, Itachi…'_

=*~*~*=

"If I may."

"She is newly pledged and bonded, is she not," the orange-haired man said, his eyes sweeping over the girl presented to him critically. "And unusual."

"You forgot young," the woman in question replied evenly, her emerald eyes gleaming brightly with amusement as the man beside her chuckled softly at her audacity. "I'm only eighteen."

"It is not as if we do not age," the man returned, though he seemed not at all offended. "Still, it is a good age to begin your new life, is it not, Itachi?"

"Indeed," the dark-haired male answered smoothly, his crimson-flecked eyes growing warm as the girl beside him squeezed his arm. "A perfect age for a twenty-three-year-old like me." They darkened to the full crimson of blood hunger as Sakura turned to face him, her upturned lips just the tiniest bit teasing.

"Receptions are so lengthy," the man with them stated offhandedly, his ring-marked eyes scanning the ornate hall. "It's hard to believe the two of you will be missed."

The meaning of his words were clear.

"We will see you again soon, I hope?" the rose-haired girl asked politely as the man beside her gently began to lead her away.

He nodded with a small smile, "Perhaps after the honeymoon."

He didn't miss the way the hands of the two twined around each other, fingers interlaced, as they disappeared into the shadows. Had he been the hating type, he would have been bitterly jealous of Itachi's luck.

"You know, I never regretted my decision," Sakura said simply when they were out of sight and earshot of the other guests, turning to Itachi with a dazzling smile.

"And nor have I," he answered her, crimson eyes warm as he pulled her closer, to wrap an arm around her waist. "Do you value your life more now, little one?"

His newly wedded wife's eyes sparkled like emeralds as she pressed her slighter frame into the curve of his body, turning her face up to his for a kiss as she whispered, "More now than ever before."

* * *

Wow...this started off as a drabble to clear my head before I started on my Japanese essay...and turned into some crazy thing that took possession of my brain and wouldn't let me stop until I was done three hours later! I have no idea where this came from. I don't even think I can blame my muse for this one...

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading it ^^ the style of writing is a little bit darker than I usually go for, and somewhat more stilted, but that's all for style's sake. I titled the fic in all lowercase as paws-bells does with stories from the 50-shinobi themes, so credit goes to her on that ^^ (ps, what ARE the 50 shinobi themes on LJ? i can't seem to find them and it's driving me nuts...please PM me if you know what they are...) Not the first story I worked on in this kind of style (I have at least two others being written) but the first posted. Unexpectedly too...geez.

Maybe I should channel Vamp!Itachi again? He was fun to write, as was strangely contemplative Sakura ^^

Your reviews feed the muse, so please do.


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